The film came second in Christmas Day openings to 2009’s Sherlock Holmes, which opened on a Friday with $24.6 million, Deadline reported. Avatar opened on Christmas Day the same year at $23 million, helping bring in $83 million total that holiday.

In third was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, now in its second week in its theatres. The film brought in $11.3 million alone on Tuesday, according to Deadline.

It surpassed Parental Guidance starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, which debuted Tuesday and earned $6.4 million. But even that film doubled box office projections, according to Variety.

Studios “are definitely on the road to a record year with $10.8 billion expected (up 6 percent over last year and beating the previous record of $10.6 billion in 2009),” Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Reuters in an email.

With a file from Reuters

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